Bariatric surgery cuts asthma-related hospital visits

HealthDay News — In obese patients, bariatric surgery cuts the risk of an emergency department visit or hospitalization for asthma, results of a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggest.

“Research on nonsurgical weight loss interventions has failed to demonstrate consistent efficacy on asthma control, although these interventions resulted in only modest weight reductions,” wrote Kohei Hasegawa, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

To examine if bariatric surgery is associated with a rapid and sustained decrease in risk of asthma exacerbation, the investigators culled data from a population-based emergency department (ED) and inpatient sample in three states (California, Florida, and Nebraska). The participants (n=2,261) were aged 18 to 54 years and underwent bariatric surgery.

The patients' risk of asthma exacerbation was followed during sequential 12-month periods using presurgery months 13 to 24 as the reference period.

During the reference period, 22% of patients had an ED visit or hospitalization for asthma exacerbation, whereas significantly fewer ED visits or hospitalizations for asthma exacerbation occurred within 12 months after bariatric surgery (10.9%; odds ratio, 0.42). The risk remained significantly lower in the subsequent period of 13 to 24 months after bariatric surgery (10.9%; odds ratio, 0.42).

ClinicalAdvisor.com is for nurse practitioners and physician assistants, offering the latest information on diagnosing, treating, managing, and preventing medical conditions typically seen in the office-based primary-care setting.

Find all of the news and departments you love from the print issue archived for easy online access, along with special Web-only content.